Guardian
by Irratation2Gravity
Summary: Kakashi discovers a wounded woman in the woods who refuses to give any clue as to who she is or what she's doing there, he is soon made into her guardian...but for some reason he feels this isnt the first time. Kakashi X OC Read and review.
1. What a pain

Heya! I2G-chan here! I'm back from a massive hiatus that lasted *cough* three years *cough*…Yeah sorry I graduated high school and got through my first year of college with two English classes under my belt so I don't suck anymore XD. I used to have stories up here but they epic failed…Anywho I am an OC author, so if that turns you off Bye. I know I'm not the only person who has gotten on this site for the sole reason of reading a Kakashi X OC fic, so this is for all of you! Please read and review, but I must warn flamers. If you leave a rude comment you'll get an ear full in return. I respect my own work as well as that of others so obviously I have NO respect for flamers. I'll take criticism but not flat out hate messages. Thank you! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Duh. XD

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Blood, and by the looks of it there was a lot of it. Kakashi looked at the solid trail that winded around the clearing and finally ended at the base of a tree. At his feet there was a small puddle that had been rubbed into the dirt, then it slowly extended north in a line of drops.

"You didn't get very far…" he mumbled to himself as he slowly followed the trail to the tree. On its trunk was a thick line of blood that was coming from a source low in its branches, whoever or whatever was bleeding was still here. Kakashi glanced up pondering his situation, should he leave the scene and call for ANBU or should he investigate himself. Before he could even make up his mind he heard a twig snap above him, a very low moan followed. Kakashi raised an eye brow and pulled out a kunai very slowly and was about to make his way up the tree when a katana swung through the leaves, its tip resting on his throat.

"Stay back." The voice behind the katana growled. Kakashi stood completely still starring at the blade; he couldn't tell whether the voice was male or female. Carefully, he looked up the blade and came to the hilt where a weak hand clutched the sword.

"Your people have done enough damage today…" the voice continued. Kakashi listened carefully for any clue as to the person's identity or gender, but unfortunately both still seemed to elude him. With a swift movement he knocked the katana from the trembling grip and was up the tree, he stood on the branch in front of his captive holding his kunai in a defense position. Kakashi could see that person was injured very badly, and was probably very close to death.

"Quick…aren't cha?" came the voice again but now Kakashi could hear the pained breathing and slight gasping with each syllable. With the new perspective Kakashi could easily tell his captive was a woman, she was tall and slender though it was hard to tell because she was curled up. She had shaggy teal hair that hung around her face lifelessly, and a pair of dark black sunglasses that shielded her eyes. Kakashi couldn't quiet remember, but he was sure he had seen someone with that hair color in his past.

"Have we met before?" Kakashi inquired looking at the woman's blank face, his eye full of study. She let out a deep breath as if she had been holding it, then her hand pushed harder against the deep wound in her stomach. A steady stream of blood seeped from under her hand and dripped onto the branch below her, this was the wound that had dropped all the blood in the clearing.

"Probably not." She answered with a small gasp. She shoved the hand that had been clutching her katana over her other, but Kakashi couldn't tell if she was trying to stop the bleeding or dull the pain. The woman's head fell back against the tree trunk and she breathed unevenly as another spasm of pain overtook her, she was beginning to suffer.

"Why are you here?" he asked after debating whether he should ask her name and allegiance.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She coughed and Kakashi didn't have to see her eyes to imagine the pain they showed. He sighed softly and put his kunai away, he knew that if they were to fight the advantage would defiantly be in his favor.

"That's not a good enough answer," he growled quietly.

"Whatcha gonna do?" she asked smirking. Kakashi knew full well she was mocking him.

"I might just put you out of your misery." He threatened trying to get a better answer out of her, though his plan backfired.

"You'd be doing me a few favors if you did." She smiled continuing her mocking. Kakashi sighed deeply and looked up through the leaves pondering.

"Well, since you aren't answering my questions perhaps you might answer to the Hokage." He said after a minute, even though he hadn't actually tried very hard to get information from her. He squatted to her level, and she tried to back away but she was already against the trunk so she stuck her foot up in defense. Kakashi grabbed her black sandal and pushed her foot out of the way and gently pulled her hands off the wound, it was deep and without the pressure it began to bleed profusely. He pulled a roll of gauze from his pouch and began to slowly lodge it into the wound to try and soak up some of the blood until they at least made it to the village. The woman squirmed in response to the extreme pain and tried to leap from the tree in an escape attempt but he stopped her quickly.

"You're coming with me." He ordered trying to pick her up but she flailed around slightly to make it difficult, it was enough for Kakashi to immediately set her back down on the tree trunk in fear of irritating the wound even more.

"Hey! Hey! What happened to putting me out of my misery?!" she whined annoying Kakashi slightly, and ever so slowly she backed herself into the tree trunk again.

"Why would I do that? You might know important information regarding my village, I can't just kill you." He said quietly as he watched her breathing become increasingly shallow and labored, he had to get her to the medics or she would die very soon.

"But you said!" the woman began but Kakashi quickly cut her off.

"Do you always believe your enemy?"

"Who said we were enemies?" She asked quietly, resentment lacing itself into her voice. Kakashi chuckled quietly and smiled with her quickness.

"Who said we weren't?" he countered waiting patiently for an answer he didn't get. Instead she looked down to her wound and winced deeply, and then her head started to nod as if she were falling asleep.

"You're going to die." He reminded her quietly, he was starting to worry.

"So let me go in peace." She breathed as she tried to gesture for him to leave, but her lack of strength made the movement unrecognizable. Kakashi smiled wryly and watched as his captive very slowly began to fall unconscious, he just hoped that he had enough time left to get her to the medics. After quickly scooping up her weakening form he took off through the tree tops and right before he arrived at the village gates she fell completely limp in his arms, he suddenly wished he hadn't toyed with her for so long. If she were to die, it would yet again be another life he failed to save, another life he couldn't afford to take responsibility for. He had to save her.


	2. In the wrong place at the wrong time

Chapter 2 AHOY! ^^ Yeah so this chapter is basically one conversation XD. It probably answers SOME questions but a lot if answers I purposely avoided, sorry but I love suspense. I hope you enjoy! Read and review! Ta!

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto.

"You let her go?" Kakashi asked the nurse calmly but even she could tell that he was on the edge of biting her head off, and he seriously was. It had been a week since he had brought the woman here when she was only an inch away from death, but after hearing she at least survived he was ready to collect his answers.

"Well actually…she escaped." The nurse answered with a very nervous laugh.

"She had a serious gash in her side that could not have fully healed in a week…yet she managed to escape?" he asked quietly though you could still plainly see his irritation. The nurse fiddled with her clipboard uncomfortably waiting for some sort of distraction so she can run, but such distraction never came.

"We…we weren't watching her…I guess?" she answered trying to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. Kakashi closed his eye and sighed deeply, it seemed like he was going to have to work for his answers after all, what an absolutely entertaining thing to do on a Thursday morning.

"I would check the surrounding perimeter, she couldn't have gotten far." A doctor said as he passed by the two as he wrote rapidly on a clipboard.

"You would think." Kakashi mumbled to himself. The nurse bowed slightly trying to excuse herself and when Kakashi turned away she ran after the doctor as if he alone could protect her.

The forest was unusually quiet, and the sky was unusually dark. A rainstorm was brewing on the horizon, and by the looks of the huge black thunder heads it was going to be a bad one. All the animals that lived in the forest had taken refuge in the trees for shelter leaving Kakashi to wonder why he wasn't doing the same, but then he quickly remember and rolled his eyes annoyed.

"Come out come out wherever you are…" he mumbled lazily. He was fully expecting his target to be hiding out in a tree again, so he was completely surprised to see her a few yards away lying in the middle of the path.

"Looks like you didn't get that far after all." He said out loud as he looked down to her seemingly sleeping face. She seemed to look healthier if you could say that, today her cheeks showed much more color in them than the blank white slates he saw before.

"You again." She mumbled from her prone position on the ground, Kakashi could hear the disgust in her voice and smiled to himself.

"So you're still alive?" he asked sitting against a tree trunk a few feet away, he didn't feel she would be getting up anytime soon.

"Unfortunately." She sighed wincing slightly with the effort.

"Are you ready to answer my questions?" he asked cutting to the chase.

"You sure are pushy."

"You owe me answers." He urged crossing his arms to show her he was ready to sit and wait until she coughed up the information he wanted, she sighed fully aware of what his intentions were.

"I can't promise I have the answer to everything you have a question for," she warned before he even started, then shivered slightly when a sudden gust of cold wind blew through the trees, the rain was close.

"I'll be the judge of that." Kakashi said narrowing his eye. He waited for her to throw another snarky comment in response to his interrogation but she just sighed quietly and closed her eyes, she oddly seemed to be used to this kind of treatment.

"Who are you?" he asked calmly after a few moments of silence.

"A tracker." She answered almost immediately though her answer was vague.

"From where?" he continued patiently as another gust passed through.

"A lot of places." The answer was vague yet again, but Kakashi didn't mind, he was slowly going to get every single answer he needed.

"Okay…then who do you work for?" he said rewording his question.

"A lot of people." Another skillful avoidance. Kakashi rolled his eye slightly then decided to switch up his questions.

"Why are you here?"

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She smirked repeating her answer from when he asked the same question a week ago, and now he was starting to get annoyed, she was treating this like a game.

"Who attacked you?" he asked suddenly remembering her injury.

"I believe they were some ANBU Black Ops from your village." She said matter-of-factly. The next gust of wind brought subtle raindrops with it; they stuck in her teal hair and glittered as her head moved with her body as she breathed.

"Why did they attack you?" he asked quickly, now they were getting somewhere. There was a flash of lightning not too far away which caught Kakashi's attention for a small moment, but he looked back to her expectantly.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." But for some reason when she said it this time she seemed to be telling the truth. Kakashi looked down to the dirt for a thoughtful moment before he looked back up and cocked his head slightly.

"So you're a tracker from many places, you work for many people, and you were randomly attacked by ANBU from Fire Country? Is this what I'm supposed to believe?" he asked sorting out all of the information he had gotten so far…which was next to nothing.

"Correct." she sighed. Kakashi couldn't help but join her sigh as he scratched his head.

"Were you…tracking…someone in our borders, when the ANBU found you I mean?" he asked not sure whether he would get anything useful from the question. The sprinkling started to pick up and not too long after the small droplets began to increase in size and frequency, now it was raining.

"No." she said simply.

"What were you doing?" he asked again hoping she would accidently answer.

"Running." Bingo.

"From whom?" he urged her to go deeper as the rain began to come down harder.

"Them." She answered numbly.

"Who are they?" Kakashi asked raising his eyebrow out of curiosity.

"They are just them." She answered slowly nodding off, Kakashi sensed his time was running low and sorted through his remaining questions to find the most important ones.

"Are you in danger?" he asked quietly.

"Probably." She nodded.

"Why?" he asked truly curious now.

"I got away." She reminded him. Kakashi mentally slapped himself, he knew that answer already.

"When did you get away?" he asked quickly not sure if the answer would help anything.

"Snowing…" she mumbled as she started to black out. Snowing, Kakashi pondered. Winter? She escaped in winter? That means she got away a few months ago.

"What's your name?" he asked almost frantically.

"Zero." She mumbled before becoming unconscious. Kakashi sighed deeply, but he decided to give Lady Tsunade the pleasure of continuing the interrogation when she awoke again.

"Zero…" he mumbled as he lifted her from the ground and proceeded to carry her back to the medical ward in the now pouring rain and lightning.

"Zero." He repeated looking down to her serene face curiously, he was completely sure that wasn't her name but at least it was something to call her for now.

Yes, he would call her Zero.


End file.
